‘General Hospital’ Star Anthony Geary Willing To Return After Retirement; Do The Writers Want Him Back?
“General Hospital” said goodbye to Luke Spencer on Monday, but there are already fans awaiting his return. Actor Anthony Geary said that after 37 years, he isn’t opposed to the idea of playing Luke again one day.
“If the story is interesting to me and it works out, I may come back to the show for six weeks or so,” Geary, 68, told Entertainment Weekly.
That would certainly delight fans, many of whom weren’t pleased with Luke’s send off. Geary’s last episode featured a quiet goodbye where Lulu (Emme Rylan) and Sonny (Maurice Benard) said farewell to him on the docks and he walked off into the foggy night. With no goodbye to Laura (Genie Francis), who returned specifically for Geary’s last episodes, many fans felt angry. A return would give Luke and Laura one last chance to say goodbye.
However, Geary isn’t so sure he’d be invited back to “General Hospital.” The actor is not on the best terms with the writers. “After this interview, I don’t think that’s a possibility,” he told TV Insider about a possible return after criticizing the writing. “But if it ever happened it couldn’t be as a stunt or to rock Lulu’s newest baby. There are too many variables. Where will I be? Where will the show be? Who will be writing? I think I timed this just right.”
Earlier in the interview, Geary said that he didn’t like some of Luke’s storylines, but the content isn't the only issue. Overall, he didn’t enjoy how much detail was in the scripts and wanted the writers to trust the actors more.
“[I won’t miss] being told how to do my job. Acting is an interpretive art and that’s really forgotten on our show, where the actors are expected to be slavishly devoted to the stage directions in the script,” Geary explained. “I get scripts where I’m literally told where to take a deep breath and what line to cry on and when to turn my body. Sometimes the writer’s stage directions are longer than the scenes themselves. The great playwrights don’t do that. They trust their material.”
Geary even had a clause in his contract that allowed him to rewrite his lines when he didn’t like them. “After all my years with this character, I’m not about to let some new hire tell me how Luke would express an idea or an emotion, and I traded money for that,” he added. “I bypassed salary increases in order to hold on to my right to fix the scripts and to be able to take breaks from the show and live for long stretches in Amsterdam. In the end, I have less money, but I am much richer for having those priorities.”
It's also worth noting that different writers run "GH" now. Headwriter Ron Carlivati was recently replaced by Jean Passanante and Shelly Altman, TVLine reports.
Though he may not have always been happy with the writing, the actor was pleased with his sendoff (even if fans weren’t). “They've given me a terrific wrap for my character,” Geary told the Los Angeles Times. “He's been a difficult, eclectic character to find a logical motivating conclusion for, but they've done that.”
“General Hospital” hasn’t announced any immediate plans to bring Luke back to Port Charles, but Geary is still keeping busy. As previously reported, Geary moved to Amsterdam after filming the show, but he has not retired for good. He is currently taking classes at the University of Amsterdam and has been writing.
“General Hospital” airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for times. Do you want Geary to return? Sound off in the comments section below!
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